Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 11:53 pm
[center]
Faceoff: Joe Newbie versus IBM's Watson
[/center]
JN: Man, that game was kinda fun, but not very tough. I breezed right through it. All the treasures were in visible chests, I skipped talking to the NPCs, and the entire game was a simple linear progression with no chance to get lost.
W: It took me 6,351.2 hours and 17 seconds. How long did it take you to complete the game?
JN: I don't keep track, but probably a little less than that. What took you so long?
W: Decisions, decisions. There are so many choices of skills to learn, and since there is no way to know which skills might be important, I learned them all.
JN: All? There must be a 100 of them!
W: I counted 149, but if I include mastery of all of them, it is a few more.
JN: I'm sure I missed a lot of that, and probably lots of treasures, too. I just got enough money to stuff my pockets with restore items and went toe to toe with those stupid monsters.
W: That is very inefficient. I found two restore points in the dungeons and spent time there pumping iron to prepare for battle.
JN: My battles did go on a bit, maybe 10-15 turns. How long were yours?
W: Some were like yours, but with all my skills and increased levels, a few were only 5 or 6 turns.
JN: So you spent all those hours grinding and obtaining skills to save a few turns in battle?
W: It is important to be efficient.
JN: Did that help with the subquests?
W: There are no subquests.
JN: What about the 6 post-game monsters?
W: There are 7.
JN: Well, do I need all that grinding and skill mastery to defeat them?
W: Special items are required.
JN: But can't you just buy them, if you have the gold? So you don't need every skill, or even skills beyond what I had to finish the normal game?
W: Correct. But perhaps you might find monster #7 too difficult at your level. It is wise to prepare for all unknowns.
JN: Hey, Watson, I bet you liked the golem characters, you being a computer and all. I liked all the different characters and their competitive but friendly rivalry. It was cool when some of them switched teams and you had to play with a different group.
W: I don't "like" anybody. It was not efficient to battle without my healer and characters who hadn't learned lots of skills.
JN: Well, the change added some variety. It is a big game, but I liked it.
W: I don't "like" anything, but it was a good game.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Three years ago I was like Joe Newbie as I played the game. I recently replayed it using a Watson-like approach. I enjoyed both experiences, and I put monster #7 (a true monster monster) in my Monster Hall of Fame.
Faceoff: Joe Newbie versus IBM's Watson
[/center]
JN: Man, that game was kinda fun, but not very tough. I breezed right through it. All the treasures were in visible chests, I skipped talking to the NPCs, and the entire game was a simple linear progression with no chance to get lost.
W: It took me 6,351.2 hours and 17 seconds. How long did it take you to complete the game?
JN: I don't keep track, but probably a little less than that. What took you so long?
W: Decisions, decisions. There are so many choices of skills to learn, and since there is no way to know which skills might be important, I learned them all.
JN: All? There must be a 100 of them!
W: I counted 149, but if I include mastery of all of them, it is a few more.
JN: I'm sure I missed a lot of that, and probably lots of treasures, too. I just got enough money to stuff my pockets with restore items and went toe to toe with those stupid monsters.
W: That is very inefficient. I found two restore points in the dungeons and spent time there pumping iron to prepare for battle.
JN: My battles did go on a bit, maybe 10-15 turns. How long were yours?
W: Some were like yours, but with all my skills and increased levels, a few were only 5 or 6 turns.
JN: So you spent all those hours grinding and obtaining skills to save a few turns in battle?
W: It is important to be efficient.
JN: Did that help with the subquests?
W: There are no subquests.
JN: What about the 6 post-game monsters?
W: There are 7.
JN: Well, do I need all that grinding and skill mastery to defeat them?
W: Special items are required.
JN: But can't you just buy them, if you have the gold? So you don't need every skill, or even skills beyond what I had to finish the normal game?
W: Correct. But perhaps you might find monster #7 too difficult at your level. It is wise to prepare for all unknowns.
JN: Hey, Watson, I bet you liked the golem characters, you being a computer and all. I liked all the different characters and their competitive but friendly rivalry. It was cool when some of them switched teams and you had to play with a different group.
W: I don't "like" anybody. It was not efficient to battle without my healer and characters who hadn't learned lots of skills.
JN: Well, the change added some variety. It is a big game, but I liked it.
W: I don't "like" anything, but it was a good game.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Three years ago I was like Joe Newbie as I played the game. I recently replayed it using a Watson-like approach. I enjoyed both experiences, and I put monster #7 (a true monster monster) in my Monster Hall of Fame.